Studying Abroad in Cork! 2

The first of my five months in Ireland is sadly almost over but so far it has been great! I have met a ton of people, both Irish students and other international students and feel like I have already done so much in my time here.

View from Cobh

I went on an organized day tour that brought me to three cities in Ireland; Kinsale (which is well known for having great night life in the summer time, but it was still very pretty to see in the winter), Cobh (which is the last place the Titanic docked before it sank) and Blarney (where the Blarney castle is and the famous Blarney stone.) It was great to go to those places and get a ton of pictures and the tour bus driver told us all about each city's history and played traditional Irish music while we drove.



Blarney Castle with the Blarney Stone!





Blarney House in Blarney



I also was able to go to Dublin for a weekend and was lucky enough to stay with family I had there and they showed me a lot of great places in Dublin but there is still so much to see so I am already planning to go back for another weekend. It was really easy to travel too, I could just walk to the bus station in Cork and it brings you right to the other city, and the bus company has discounted tickets for students! (Many other places have discounts for students as well, like restaurants and even clothing stores.)

So far my classes have been going well. I am taking 5 different courses, three of which are made just for international students.  Those classes are good because everyone in the class is in the same situation as I am and they are all Irish courses (Irish History, Irish folklore, and Irish Literature) so it is teaching a lot about the country I am staying in.  My other two courses are with mainly Irish students so those are great because it gives me more of a Irish experience, and allows me to meet some Irish students.  The teachers have all been very great, and fortunately none of their accents are hard to understand (which was one of my concerns at first!) UCC has about 20,000 students so they have SO many different courses available which work for almost any major for international students which was a big plus.
Although I am here to learn things at the University, living in another country has also taught me so many things that I could not learn in my own country.  I have learned so many different words that Irish people use that I had never heard of (I started an Irish vocabulary list so I could keep up with it all), and am learning a lot of the Irish culture and customs from the Irish people I have become friends with. I am also learning things about other cultures as well because there are international students from over 100 different countries so I am meeting people from those countries too (like Finland, France and Austria so far!) Being here has also given me a new sense of independence because being so far away from my family for so many months at a time was a big deal for me but as I am here I can tell it is learning experience that I am grateful for because it will help me mature a lot and make me a more independent person.